VPR Wins National Awards for Community Impact

VPR has received two My Source Community Impact Awards from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, for bringing the community together through our My Vermont and Vermont Reads projects in 2008. Read more and listen to both series at our website.

Thank you for supporting this kind of programming. It is an honor to do what we do, and your support and desire for quality programming makes it all possible.

Burlington Listener is Puzzle Master!

Congratulations to Joy Kipp of Burlington, winner of the Sunday Puzzle with Will Shortz on Weekend Edition Sunday Morning. Listen and see this week's puzzle here.

Doing our Best Ira Glass Impressions

It was wonderful to meet so many of you last night at the This American Life - Live! broadcast at South Burlington's Palace 9 theater. The show was excellent and we had a blast in the lobby trying on Ira Glass glasses. Check out our slideshow from the event below.




The show was sold out, so if you weren't able to make it, tickets are on sale now for an encore showing May 7. The program will air on VPR at 6 p.m. Sunday, May 2.

We're Walking for Wayne

For the fourth consecutive year, VPR staff members have banded together as the Wayne’s World team to take part in the MS Walk.

This year’s event takes place at 9 a.m., Saturday, April 25 at Burlington High School. The team is named for a former VPR colleague who was diagnosed several years ago with multiple sclerosis. And, the team includes VPR friend Carol More, who serves as an inspiration to us all. Having been diagnosed with MS eight years ago, Carol walks with us and raises funds for this worthwhile cause.

In what has become a wonderful musical tradition, Robert Resnik, host of All the Traditions on VPR, walks along with the team, serenading us with delightful songs played on his concertina.

Last year, gifts to Wayne’s World helped fund two ramps, three wheelchairs and one fully accessible van for the more than 4,000 Vermonters living with MS. The Wayne’s World team invites you to join the MS Walk or make a pledge of support. Thank you so much for making a difference in our community.

- Ric Cengeri, Production Associate

Howard Dean on Here and Now

In case you missed it, Howard Dean was a guest on Here and Now this afternoon. Click here to listen to the program.

File Under: Blue, Kind Of

This Wednesday evening's Jazz gets underway at 8 with a special one-hour radio documentary on the Miles Davis album Kind of Blue, the best selling jazz record in history.

Pianist Bill Evans' famous album notes compare the modal improvisation on Kind of Blue to a Japanese brush technique where the delicate paper tears if the brush is pressed too hard or moved in the wrong direction. I remember first hearing the music in college, sitting around with music friends listening, analyzing and sharing amazement at the quiet beauty of art made perfect.

Recorded in two sessions, the April 22nd, 1959 Kind of Blue session resulted in the classics, "Flamenco Sketches" and "All Blues". We'll hear them in their entirety in the 9 o'clock hour, along with music from other 1959 jazz milestones including bassist & composer Charles Mingus' Mingus Ah Um (Mingus was born on April 22nd!).

In addition to Kind of Blue, 1959 marked a watermark in jazz history with the recording of Dave Brubeck's Take Five, Ornette Coleman's The Shape Of Jazz To Come, John Coltrane's Giant Steps and a long list of other seminal albums. Sadly, it also marked the passing of a few jazz giants: Lester Young (March 15), Sidney Bechet (May 14) and Billie Holiday (July 17).

1959 was an extraordinary year in jazz by any measure.

I hope you'll join me tomorrow evening starting at 8, for VPR's Kind of Blue tribute.

George Thomas
VPR Jazz Host

VPR Community Forum

VPR’s Community Forum gathered yesterday at our Colchester studios for a day of discussion about the future of Vermont Public Radio. The Forum is helping VPR to develop our next strategic plan by looking now at our mission, vision, and values statements as the basis of our planning. Our current strategic plan concludes next year and has been very helpful in directing VPR's growth in recent years.

The VPR Community Forum is a volunteer group of listeners who provide input to VPR about programming and community service. The 40 members of the Community Forum represent a diversity of professions, geographic regions, and interests of the listeners and the communities VPR serves. The Forum meets biannually, and members serve for two years. The next meeting, on Friday, October 2, 2009, is the last meeting of the current members of the Community Forum. Soon thereafter, the Community Forum steering committee will be looking for a new group of motivated and interested listeners who are willing to commit two days a year in service to Vermont Public Radio, and to provide feedback throughout the year. If you’re interested in being considered for the VPR Community Forum, please let us know through the contact form on our website, vpr.net.

Robin Turnau
President & CEO